February 06, 2013

Best Fall 2013 NYFW Invites

New York Fashion Week kicks off today, and TFI's been showered with hundreds of invitations to the fall 2013 shows. This season, there are a few distinct themes shaping up in the invite department. Here are my faves.

Bold graphics are the name of the game at Tome, 4 Corners of a Circle (printed on a square of felted canvas) and VPL by Victoria Bartlett, who's calling her fall outing "Disjoin + Rejoin." Designer Jen Kao offers a snippet of self-penned poetry on a jagged backdrop, while Nonoo and Rauwolf use old-school iconography (birds and vintage typography, respectively) in fresh, unexpected ways.

Lots of designers are paying homage to the natural world this season, whether it's a field of faded flowers at Lyn Devon, black and white silhouetted branches at ADEAM, lush 3-D blossoms at WHIT or the earthy-elegant knits of newbie Amanda Henderson.

Striking prints and patterns are splashed across the Fashion Week invites of Costello Tagliapietra, Haus Alkire, Tess Giberson and Libertine, whose colorful card depicts the label's fall mood board, including a shot of bruised and bloodied designer Johnson Hartig (a fitting metaphor for what it takes to make it in fashion these days).

Several invites showcase a clever use of materials: Honor serves up the deets on a piece of sheer, rubbery neon pink plastic. Moncler Grenoble's card opens to reveal the presentation's date, time, et al. printed backwards on the left side of the page, opposite a mirror that allows guests to read the type while doubling the size of the image. And Mathieu Mirano sent over a clear plastic petri dish with his name and show details emblazoned on the lid atop a base printed with what appears to be black and gold microbes—whether a joking nod to this season's global flu epidemic or a visual tribute to the seeds of creative germination, only the designer knows for sure.

And then there are those paeans to classic female archetypes, both old (Marie Antoinette and an African fertility goddess, courtesy Byron Lars) and, errr, new (a platinum-haired dominatrix clad in head-to-toe leather from gender-benders The Blonds).

As to whether these invitations reflect the mood of the collections themselves? Stay tuned…